A face drifted into her mind, Shane Gallagher’s face. She clamped her hands around the edge of the sheet, ordering herself to get him out of her mind. She barely knew him, and she certainly wasn’t going to ask him to watch over her.
She felt a laugh bubbling in her throat. No, she wasn’t going to call him.
Instead, she worked the pillow into a better position under her neck, moved her shoulders to get comfortable, and closed her eyes. Maybe the pill she’d taken had started working, because she felt herself letting go. And soon she had crossed from wakefulness to sleep.
For a few hours, that slumber was peaceful. Then a dream grabbed her. She was back at the S&D building, and it was after the hostage situation was over. Hadn’t they been in the ladies’ room? Instead, Shane helped her to her feet and pulled her into Mr. Perkins’ office and closed the door.
Wrapping her in his arms, he gathered her close. She closed her eyes and leaned into him the way she’d wanted to but hadn’t allowed herself.
“Are you all right?” he asked urgently.
“Yes.” She raised her head and opened her eyes, searching his face. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
She caught her breath as she took in their surroundings. They had come into Mr. Perkins’ office. But that wasn’t what she saw now. She and Shane Gallagher were in a bedroom, where they obviously shouldn’t be.
She pushed at his shoulders, but he kept her in his arms.
“What are we doing here?” she asked in a shaky voice.
He tipped his head to the side, giving her a look that made her blood heat. “Don’t you know?”
Of course she did, but she wasn’t going to say it.
His words didn’t quite match the look he’d given her. “You’ve just been through a terrible ordeal. You need to calm down.”
She swallowed hard. She had been scared out of her mind a few minutes ago, and she was still off balance.
Shane massaged her tense shoulders, helping her relax. He ran his hands up and down her back the way he’d done before…but this time he went farther, gliding down to the rounded curve of her bottom, sending currents of sensation through her body.
Every lesson she’d learned from her mother about how to act with men told her he shouldn’t be touching her like that. She should push herself away from him, but she didn’t have the strength to do it.
“I want to kiss you,” he said in a gritty voice. “And you want to kiss me.”
She wasn’t going to admit that aloud. When she didn’t move, he crooked one hand under her chin, tipping her face up, and she saw that he was smiling down at her.
She stared into his dark eyes, watching him as he lowered his head, so that his lips brushed back and forth against hers, then settled, pressing, moving, asking her to open for him.
She did, feeling another surge of heat as his tongue dipped into her mouth, playing with the inside of her lips, then the line of her teeth.
This was more than she should allow, but she ignored proprieties. Experimentally, she moved her own tongue, sliding it against his, each stroke of that intimate contact increasing the heat coursing through her body.
She was wearing the blue blouse that Lincoln Kinkead had given her, and her breath caught as Shane began to unbutton it.
“No,” she protested.
“You don’t want me to do this?”
Emotions warred inside her. All the warnings Momma had given her clashed with her own desires. “I don’t know,” she managed to say.
He laughed. “Don’t fool yourself.”
Before she could come back with a retort, he moved one hand from the buttons to her breasts.
“Don’t.”
He let go of the button he was holding and glided his fingers over the silky fabric of the blouse, making her nipples poke out against the silk.
What—had she forgotten to wear a bra?
Heat surged through her as he circled the tight peaks with his fingers. And this time, when he started unbuttoning the blouse, she didn’t protest.
He pushed the sides of the blouse out of the way, baring her breasts.
“Don’t,” she protested again, but her voice had gone weak.
“You like it.”
“I shouldn’t.”
His gaze grew more intense. “Don’t deny yourself what you want.”
She couldn’t answer.
She might have run, but she was rooted to the spot. He took her nipples between his thumbs and fingers, tugging on them, making her body rigid with molten need. He kept one hand on her breasts, playing with them as the other hand slid down her body to the juncture of her legs.
She felt her knees buckle, but he backed her against a wall to keep her upright as his fingers separated the folds of her sex, slipping into her most intimate flesh.
He caressed her there, stroking and pressing, making her hips rock to increase the contact.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Go with it,” he whispered as his teeth nibbled at her ear.
An explosion gathered and flared, sending a burst of pleasure through her body. She cried out, calling his name.
“Shane.”
Seconds later, her eyes blinked open, and she knew she was alone in her own bed. The heated encounter with him had all been a dream. And the memories of what she had dreamed made her face redden. Now she was glad that the room was almost dark and that she wasn’t at her parents’ house.
The dream had started with the terror of the hostage scene. But the terror had dissolved into sexual need, then… She didn’t want to admit that her unconscious mind had brought her to sexual climax, but there was no way to avoid the reality.
She lay in bed, struggling to bring her emotions and her breathing under control.
Moments ago she had imagined making love with Shane Gallagher. Well, not sexual intercourse. She supposed she hadn’t dared go that far—even in her dreams. But he had made her come.
Made her come. That’s what it was called. Something nice girls didn’t do. But she hadn’t been able to control her dream.
She laughed out loud, the sound startling in the darkened bedroom. She’d been asleep. That was her excuse.
A long-ago scene flashed into her mind. Something she didn’t like to think about. The time Momma had come into her bedroom and caught her touching herself. She’d slapped her and told her that was something forbidden. And Elena had made sure she’d never been caught doing it again. Of course, “caught” was the operative word. It was something she didn’t want to give up, and she’d just been more careful about it. That was all.
She dragged in a breath and let it out.
Back then she’d been a scared little girl, wanting to please her parents. When she’d grown up, she’d read a lot about sex. It was a natural function and perhaps a joy for married couples. But in the world where she came from, it was forbidden to anyone else.
Well, at least that was true of women. She was fairly sure that a lot of men felt entitled to disobey that rule. They could get away with it because their wives were dependent on them, for themselves and for their children, if they had any. But she would never be the kind of woman with no resources of her own. She’d dreamed of being an artist, but she’d known that was an uncertain career. She’d made sure she had a marketable skill, working with computers. That had gotten her a good job. She was perfectly capable of supporting herself. And maybe someday she’d find the right man. Someone who would love her and respect her.
Her heart squeezed. Was the right man out there? She didn’t know, but for the moment, her best choice was to keep on with the life she had made for herself.
She sat up in bed, pulled her knees up and clasped her arms around her legs, rocking back and forth. Her life had been going along the way she’d planned it until a new chief of security had showed up at S&D. Shane Gallagher. She was afraid of him, but at the same time she was attracted to him, and she thought the attraction was mutual. But there were times when it felt like he had something against her, something she didn’t understand, because she had no idea what she’d done to set him against her. That part was like the soldiers back home. You never knew what they’d be ordered to do—and why.